Superdeal / Rushmore... This One Will Ice Your Cake...

FYI,
He is currently using his re-entry seller name for many of his listings this week.

If ebay is aware that such deceptive address activity is taking place and they do not institute safeguards against it, can't a well publicized class action lawsuit be instituted against them for that negligence that has cost some people real money? The exercise of due diligence has meaning in today's international marketplace, and its failure should have serious consequences for those who look the other way. Isn't that all already in U.S. law?

I agree with the opinion that ebay isn't losing any money. If anything, they are making money on this seller and others like him. So other then ethical reasons, why would ebay be bothered in spending money chasing this issue around?

I am not even sure that if we got 100 hobbyists to write ebay and say they were no longer buying anything if they would be bothered to react. They simply don't give a damn unless there is a substantial impact in cost. We have all seen how ebay has evolved over the last 10 years, dialing in their profitability while giving lip service to things like fraud and deception.

Frankly this approach is working from a profit/loss standpoint. Amazon just announced a crushing quarterly loss of $437 million while ebay earnings beat the estimates and is making more money than ever.

I simply don't see that ebay will ever pay attention or care as long as they are making more money. They could not care less about philately or its future. This is why I don't bother trying to interface with them and instead try to educate and communicate the issues. In this arena organizations like APS can play a key role if they had the courage to take their heads out of their butts. Ditto with the philatelic press like Linn's. These entities are supposed to be looking out for the future of our hobby yet they sit on the sidelines while the criminals run without being exposed.

"Its a 'virtual office'. He uses 're-mailing' services to make it appear that he ships from US locations"

You are just guessing and I have seen info that suggests otherwise.

" Amazon just announced a crushing quarterly loss of $437 million while ebay earnings beat the estimates and is making more money than ever."

Amazon is spending huge amounts of money now on their plans for the future.

Q/ These characters are known members-in-good-standing of the APS?

Q/ These characters are known members-in-good-standing of the ASDA?

If 'no', then these organizations have already stepped-up ...

... buy only from their member-dealers, and you're all set.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Allow me to say, in as friendly a way as possible, that there are fair-not-foul reasons to use a 'virtual office' (nee 'executive suite', 'mailing service', etc) or, for that matter, a goofy screen name.

(Uncle Harry insisted on calling me 'ikeyPikey', so I come by it honestly.)

Like a screen name, one reason for a mailing cut-out is security. No need to let everyone easily know where you live, keep your inventory, etc.

Another reason is speed of delivery and, therefor, cash flow. Look at the enormous hit Amazon is taking by opening warehouses near Major Metropolitan Areas to achieve faster delivery, even though it removes the ambiguity they had been exploiting, and obligates them to collect sales taxes and sacrifice a price advantage.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Sure, if you buy into the typical investor double-speak that Amazon's CFO (and all CFOs usually say about 'investing in growth' when spending money faster than its coming in), "We have been in investment mode because of the opportunities we have in front of us," Thomas Szkutak said. "There's still lots of opportunities in front of us, but we know we have to be cautious about which opportunities we pursue."

Perhaps Amazon can convince stockholders that spending money on drones and rolling out products like 'Fire Phone' (a colossal failure which original $199 price was quickly reduced to 99 cents weeks after it began shipping) won't hurt too badly. What was Szkutak response to the Fire phone failure? "Whenever you launch something new, there's a wide range of outcomes, it's just early." LOL But stockholders and The Street have heard this kind of talk before and few have tolerance for these kinds of "investment" (i.e financial failures on a large scale).




I acknowledge that it is possible that there are other actual 'agents' involved, I have heard some others guess about this too. He does have a few employee minions, but this person's MO is not to have partners.

Having partners greatly increases the risks involved in both terms of legal exposure and in terms the issue of trusting other people. When ripping other people off and doing illegal activities partnering means you have to find other criminals(!) whom you trust. The risk of them turning on you if they get into hot water is substantial. Additionally, he 'ships' out of both the northeast and the southeast US cities which also happen to be places where virtual offices are available. Lastly, it only makes sense to use a re-mailer service on many levels as opposed to angry buyers having a real person/address to seek recourse on.

If he is using actual warm bodies in this country, he has made a huge mistake and has nullified much of the effort he has done to build insulating international legal layers. But I do acknowledge that this is just my opinion.

I gathered just the opposite from the law you quoted.

The SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) does not regulate the trade in postage stamps.

Moreover, if we cannot get the SEC et al to put anyone in jail after the mortgage securities collapse, what makes you think that their regulating the stamp trade would lead to any result, let alone a good result?

When the Health Department starts prosecuting the dating sites for marriages gone bad, perhaps we can revisit the issue.

Meanwhile? RICO, SHMICO.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The straight-line dividend-free five-year-plus skyrocketing of AMZN suggests lots & lots of tolerance.

Only the very recent drop suggests that there is a limit to this patience, and that drop may have more to do with comparative performance (Apple & Google & ebay & FaceBook) than it does with Amazon's (occasionally bizarre) reinvestment strategies.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (another Amazon boycotter)

But what does it say about philately that we cannot figure out who can provide oversight for the fraudulent activity that is damaging it? Why do we not look toward the philatelic press and apply pressure there? What happened to hard hitting investigative reporting? And where are the major philatelic organizations? How can they espouse mission statements like this one http://stamps.org/Our-Mission yet literally run from even getting involved in with fraudulent online activity? Obviously neither of these groups care enough, or simply don't have the backbone, to tackle the issue.

I simply do not see ebay ever caring about philately. And it is highly doubtful that anyone with pocket deeps enough to bring an international law suit will step up. We may find a State Attorney General office with some young, idealistic lawyer willing to tackle something like this but we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for that to happen. And the US Feds certainly would consider this small fish. So who is left?

From my chair it appears that we have given up and are just letting 'market forces' play out. Trouble with the 'just let the buyer beware' approach is that it damages the hobby and represents yet another obstacle for the new hobbyist. There are some highly experienced hobbyists who like this approach because it so heavily favors them. They have already learned how to navigate the minefield of crap for sale and can cherry pick the better material. While this selfish perspective makes them better off the hobby itself will continue its slow attrition.

Every time I hear the subject of the health of philately comes up, or how Linn's is losing subscribers, or how APS membership is declining; this is the issue I think about.

Northeast, southeast ... name one SMSA (Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area) in the USA (there are hundreds) that does *not* have a virtual office, executive suite, or mailing service.

Few of these are run by criminals, waiting for other criminals to hire them.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

What is the value of picking apart another person's opinion? I stated it was an opinion, is this (of fussing over Amazon's long term investments) an important part of trying to clean up fraudulent activity in philately?

Q/ In what way is philately being damaged by the worst behavior at ebay? Even if one of us were to make-up a new screen name, and be the first one in SCF history to post that they were abandoning the hobby because of purchases completed thru ebay, who among us would believe them?

Q/ When did Linn's ever have a Golden Age of "... hard hitting investigative reporting ..."?

Q/ How does one get from the referenced APS mission statement to roaming the world, searching-out commercial fraud by their non-members?

I like my previous point so much that I think I will repeat it:

Q/ These characters are known members-in-good-standing of the APS?

Q/ These characters are known members-in-good-standing of the ASDA?

If 'no', then these organizations have already stepped-up ...

... buy only from their member-dealers, and you're all set.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (who does not belong to either the APS or the ASDA)

You are right! It is not.

I am glad that I did not suggest that it was an elucidating example.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The APS mission statement is not inclusive of just its members. "To promote stamp collecting for people of all ages." "to offer services to its members AND philately in general, including knowledge and education…" "to represent the United States of America in the world body of philately" I do not see anything that make this exclusive to only its members. I completely concur that APS may not be entity which is wholly responsible for policing ebay but are you saying that they should not play any role in bring pressure upon ebay or communicating the fraudulent activity in philately?

Ditto for the philatelic press. Yes, it is my opinion (and many others) that Linn's used to have more hard hitting editorial content. For example here is another a thread in another forum in which Ken Lawrence makes the same point. http://forums.delphiforums.com/stam...ages/50845/1 They have a role to play in communicating this issue.

Why the push back? Are you really saying that fraudulent activity does not damage the hobby?